Series on Luke
IV The Imperatives of the Kingdom
B Instruction in Rejection
15 Shepherd’s Search
Text: 15:1-32
Introduction
This is surely on all counts one of the greatest chapters of the Bible. The three parables in this chapter are surely meant to be seen as one parable unequaled in beauty, emotional power, and in the coherent completeness with which it presents the forgiving love of God. Jesus has just challenged the crowd with requirements for discipleship that are harsh and difficult in 14:25-27. Yet as we read in verses 1 and 2, Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them,” We see the tax collectors and sinners, the despised of society, continuing to follow Him because they had little to lose. The scribes and Pharisees were angry and denounced Him for consorting with such garbage. He should have gathered his robe about himself and ignored the scum, but he was welcoming them and eating with them. The Greek implies a sense of eagerness and intimacy. So they condemned Him because they thought He was as they were. They don’t realize he has a Teflon robe! The dirt doesn’t stick. And so Jesus patiently explains in these parables about the Triune love of God. Amazing grace is His theme as he pictures a suffering savior, a seeking spirit, and a sovereign singer.
I A Suffering Savior
This part of the parable in verses 3-7 is an echo of the prophet Isaiah, Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Isaiah wrote, All we like sheep have gone astray,we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Jesus is the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. It is his portion to bear our sins upon the cross as he bears the sheep upon his shoulder. This is the shepherd of Israel, the Messiah of whom Isaiah wrote, the Savior whom we trust. He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree as he carried home the lost sheep. He endured the shame of the cross for the joy that was set before him as he in this parable returns home and says, “Rejoice with me for i have found my lost sheep.” Peter says it in I Peter 2:25, For you were like sheep going astray but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.
II A Seeking Spirit
the second part of the parable concerns a woman in verses 8-10, “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” This is fascinating because the first reference to the Holy Spirit in the Bible is in Genesis 1 where we see the Spirit hovering over the waters. It is the same word used in Deuteronomy to describe the eagle fluttering over her young. Also in Romans 8 when Paul describes the ministry of the Spirit he uses feminine imagery as the groaning of ourselves and the whole creation for full redemption is pictured as the labor pains of bringing a child to birth. So here the finding of the lost coin is appropriately pictured in the feminine gender because this aspect of God’s image is seen preeminently in the Spirit. As the Shepherd seeks through suffering for his sheep, so the Spirit seeks to bring us to trust in the Shepherd as our Savior and Lord and so restores value to our lives. Now I want you to notice a very important fact. The third parable involves a human being with a will and the power to act, but before we get to that parable we have seen a sheep and a coin. The sheep did nothing but run away. The coin did nothing but be lost. But once the Shepherd suffers and the Spirit seeks, then, and only then, do we have the parable of the son seeking the Father.
III A Singing Sovereign
And now to the most glorious part of the parable, the third phase in which the foolish son asks for his share of the inheritance and takes off to see the world in verses 11-32, Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ”‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” Having squandered everything he ends up in the worst place for a nice Jewish boy, tending the pigs. He comes to the realization at the end of his rope that the servants in his father’s house fare better than he is now and returns. The father does not allow him to even ask to be a servant before he is upon him smothering him with kisses. In his absence the father suffered worse than the son. After he has witnessed the father’s faithful love he then says I am not worthy, but his penitence is in his turning and the father quickly says to the older brother, “You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” What a picture of each and everyone of us who have gone astray. What a picture of how God receives us by grace, not for what we have been but for what we can be. As the hymn says, “I am not skilled to understand what God hath willed, what God hath planned, I only know at his right hand is one who is my Savior. That he should leave his place on high and come for sinful man to die, you count it strange, so once did I, before I knew my Savior.” And the Father sings. Let’s have a feast and celebrate, but there is someone who does not like the song.
Conclusion
In conclusion let me focus your attention on that person, the elder brother. Some say he represents the scribes and Pharisees, and he does, but certainly he represents more. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The elder son at home was a sinner too. He also needed the mercy of the father, but he was far from the father’s heart. Present at home and faithful in duty, but heedless of mercy. Notice he comes in from the field where he has been laboring while his younger sibling was off living riotously. Let’s get something straight. Doing good is good, but we make a terrible mistake if we think that doing good is enough. There is a difference between the obligatory performance of duty which is slavery, and the thankful free response to God’s love. The Bible makes this very clear. The problem with the elder son is not that he did good. This we ought to encourage, but that he trusted in his performance instead of the father’s mercy. Someone has said there are three sons in this story: the prodigal who ran away into sin and broke his father’s heart. the elder son who remained home and was out of sympathy with his father’s heart, and the third son who tells the parable, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He never broke the Father’s heart with sin, and he was so in sympathy with it that he went out to save his brother. Do you know God as gracious? He is the one who suffered, sought and sang over you, and now are you ready to suffer for, seek, and sing over others?
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